As part of a national health care overhaul, Oregon is trying to encourage people who frequent the emergency room to get their health care from regular doctors instead.

And that's how the state can save money, says Rebecca Ramsey of CareOregon, a nonprofit health plan for Medicare and Medicaid patients. "It doesn't take very many ED visits and it takes less than one hospital admission avoided, to actually more than pay for the time that Lisa spent with Jeremie," she says.

Oregon has no formal numbers yet, but the federal government has given the state almost $2 billion and five years to show it can reduce the rate of medical inflation by 2 percent.